The Court's mistake in the Palin case

 Newsmax:

The judge who dismissed Sarah Palin's defamation lawsuit against The New York Times while the jury was deliberating not only "made a mistake," but he made the verdict "moot" on appeal, according to legal expert Alan Dershowitz on Newsmax.

"I was very surprised," Dershowitz told Saturday's "America Right Now," referring to U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who overlooked cell phone push notifications alerting jurors of a dismissed case while they were in deliberations. "I know Judge Rakoff. He's a terrific judge, but he made a mistake here, and the Court of Appeals will discount the jury verdict.

"The court of appeals will take this case on the assumption that the judge called the jurors all in and said, 'oh, by the way, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, while you're deliberating, I want you to know I've dismissed this case and so what you're doing is all moot.'

"That's the way in which the court will deal with it. It will discount the jury verdict because the jury verdict may very well have been influenced. And we know jurors were aware of that judgment."

Now, according to Dershowitz told host Tom Basile, the appeal could lead to a changing of the libel standard of the "concept of malice.

"Now, whether the Court of Appeals will say there was enough evidence to establish malice, that's the hard question, and that issue may go to the Supreme Court, and we may see a redefinition of the concept of malice," he added.

Dershowitz noted the mistake of ignoring the possibility the jury would get alerts on their cell phones was made because of a concerted effort by Judge Rakoff to write an opinion on the case he otherwise would not be permitted to officially file.

"The judge should have either dismissed before the jury went into deliberate or wait until the jury verdict came back," Dershowitz said. "But the judge wanted to write an opinion, and if the jury verdict came the way it did, in favor of The New York Times the judge would have no opportunity to write an opinion.
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I think the Supreme Court should take the case and change the malice standard the court wrote in the NY Time v. Sullivan case where they appeared to have a prejudice against the plaintiff who was a segregationist law enforcement official.  It is an opinion that has allowed the media to get sloppy in their writing.